Markus Andrews

Boris Johnson has hinted he will slam the brakes on the plan to lift all Covid restrictions next month, saying: “We may need to wait.”Amid growing alarm over surging infection rates and more people being taken to hospital, the prime minister said more data was needed to make the crucial decision.“I don’t see anything currently in the data to suggest that we have to deviate from the roadmap, but we may need to wait,” he told reporters.On the spread of the B1617.2 Indian variant of concern, Mr Johnson said: “I want to stress that we always did expect to see an increase in cases, that was always going to happen.“What we need to understand is to what extent the vaccine programme is starting to make a real difference in interrupting the link between infection and hospitalisation and serious illness and death.”On Monday, Professor Andrew Pollard, the head of the Oxford Vaccine Group, warned it would take “a few more weeks” for the data to prove if that link had been broken.It was unclear if Mr Johnson was talking about waiting for more data – or waiting before scrapping all restrictions – but the uncertainty threatens his promise to make the decision on 14 July.The caution comes after Professor John Edmunds, who sits on the Sage advisory committee, called for the 21 June date to be abandoned.“No. At the moment it looks a little bit risky,” he said, when asked about the timetable, saying the Indian variant “is taking off in a number of places … it is concerning”.Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London, said: “Step 4 [of the roadmap] is rather in the balance – the data collected in the next two to three weeks will be critical.“The key issue as to whether we can go forward is: will the surge caused by the Indian variant – and we do think there will be a surge – be more than has been already planned into the relaxation measures?”The latest government data shows an 18 per cent leap in the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 in the past week.It also shows another 789 Covid patients were admitted to hospital in the past week – an increase of 10 per cent.On a hospital visit, the prime minister acknowledged there are “signs of an increase in cases”, particularly of the B1617.2 Indian variant of concern.But he said: “Don’t forget the important point about the intervals between the steps of the road map. We put that five weeks between those steps to give us time to see what effect the unlockings are having.” More

Black people are 12 times more likely to be prosecuted for cannabis possession than white people, according to new analysis by the Liberal Democrats who are calling for an end to the use of Stop and Search for small amounts.Brian Paddick, the former police chief who is the party’s home affairs spokesperson in the House of Lords, warned that the focus on canabis possession for personal use is “a waste of police and court time” and “undermines trust and confidence in the police among Black communities”.He is proposing an amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill that would end the use of Stop and Search for possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use.Liberal Democrat analysis of new Ministry of Justice statistics found that there were a total of 26,095 prosecutions for drug possession in 2020 – 57 per cent of them (14,894) for cannabis. Black people faced 148.4 prosecutions for cannabis possession per 100,000 people, compared to 12.2 per 100,000 for white people.Separate Home Office data reveals that a Black person is eight times more likely to be stopped and searched for drugs than a white person, but no more likely to be found with drugs.Lord Paddick said: “The UK’s outdated drug laws are doing more harm than good. Cannabis is freely available and widely used, while criminal drug gangs are doing enormous damage to our communities and the lives of young people.“Stopping, arresting and prosecuting thousands of people just for possession of cannabis for personal use is a waste of police and court time. Meanwhile, the vast majority of burglaries go unsolved, and even crimes that are prosecuted drag on for years before victims get justice because the courts are clogged-up with minor drugs cases.“To make matters worse, the disproportionate use of these laws undermines trust and confidence in the police among black communities. Young people are dying on our streets while the police are looking for a spliff.”He added: “We urgently need to restore the trust that is crucial for effective policing, such as the targeting of stop and search on those whom the community knows are the ones carrying the knives.“Instead of wasting their time searching people for small amounts of cannabis, let’s give police officers the time and space to prevent and solve crimes that are important people and that make our communities safer for everyone.” Deputy CEO of Transform Drug Policy Foundation, Jane Slater, told The Independent: “We welcome any move to prevent stop and search for small drug offences, and have recently partnered with social action network, Blaksox, to expose these discriminatory practices and demand reform of our 50 year old failed drug laws.“As the evidence demonstrates stop and search has proved ineffective at reducing drug use, curtailing drug markets, or reducing drug related harm. Rather it has led to disproportionate criminalisation of marginalised communities – particularly inner-city black youth, fueling stigma and inequalities. “Black people in London for example are over 19 times more likely to be stopped and searched for drugs than white people.”It comes as campaigners launched a super-complaint against powers to stop and search people without suspicion in areas chosen by the police, amid allegations of ineffectiveness and racism.The Criminal Justice Alliance (CJA), a network of 160 organisations, is calling for section 60 stop and search laws to be repealed as numbers rocket in England and Wales. More

Matt Hancock has denied allegations that he repeatedly lied to colleagues and the public during the course of the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Former Downing Street chief of staff Dominic Cummings had told MPs on Wednesday that the health secretary had nearly been sacked by the prime minister for his conduct.Answering an urgent question from Labour on the issue in the House of Commons on Thursday, Mr Hancock said he rejected the allegations “around honesty” – though he did not specifically address others. “These allegations that were put yesterday … are serious allegations and I welcome the opportunity to come to the House to put formally on the record that these unsubstantiated allegations around honesty are not true,” he said.”I’ve been straight with people in public and in private throughout.”Boris Johnson meanwhile made little comment when quizzed on Mr Cummings’ claims during a visit to a hospital later on Thursday. “You’ve got to recognise – and I think people do understand this – that when you go into a lockdown, it’s a very, very painful and traumatic thing for people’s mental health, their lives and their livelihoods.“Of course you’ve got to set that against the horrors of the pandemic and of Covid. At every stage, we’ve been governed by a determination to protect life, to save life, to ensure that our NHS is not over run. And we followed to the best we can the data and the guidance.“And what we are doing now is still following the data, still looking very carefully at where we’re going, and looking at what’s happening with the new variant.”During parliamentary exchanges on Thursday morning MPs repeatedly asked the Home Secretary about specific claims made by Mr Cummings – including whether Mr Hancock had known that people who had not been tested for Covid were being discharged into care homes.“The challenge is we had to build testing capacity, and at that time of course I was focused on protecting people in care homes and in building that testing capacity so that we had the daily tests to be able to ensure that availability was more widespread,” he said.Meanwhile Conservative MPs came to his aid – using time allocated for questions to the minister to attack Mr Cummings and the opposition.Wellingborough Tory MP Peter Bone described Mr Cummings as an “unelected Spad who broke Covid regulations, admitted he had leaked stuff to the BBC and, by his own admission, wasn’t fit to be in Number 10 Downing Street”.Mr Bone added: “The only mistake the Prime Minister made in this pandemic is he didn’t fire Dominic Cummings early enough.”Meanwhile another Tory, Cherilyn Mackrory, said: “Given the gravity of the situation the Government faced at the beginning of the pandemic and considering we now know there was a hugely disruptive force in the form of Dominic Cummings, I’d like to congratulate ministers.”She added: “Can [Mr Hancock] assure me that he will ignore unsubstantiated Westminster gossip and stay focused on delivering the vaccine rollout and our manifesto promises?”Mr Hancock replied: “I think that’s what the public expects us to do.”But Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “Isn’t the truth that his failures on testing and PPE contributed to covid spreading like ‘wildfire’ in care homes? “It is clear to the country and the families who lost loved ones that we have been let down by this Government, this Prime Minister, and this Health Secretary. “The truth matters. The least these families and the country now deserve is clear answers from the Health Secretary and Prime Minister today.” Asked why Mr Johnson had delayed calling a lockdown in the face of scientific advice that it was needed, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “We are guided by the latest scientific advice throughout. It’s the prime minister’s job and that of the cabinet to take that advice and put it alongside wider implications of measures such as lockdown and consider the longer-term impact of those measures. That’s what the prime minister did. He balanced that judgement and took action whenever necessary during this pandemic.”On Mr Hancock’s comment that it was “too early” to say whether the final step of relaxing lockdown would go ahead on 21 June, the PM’s spokesperson said: “The secretary of state was reflecting the fact that we as yet don’t have crucial pieces of information about this variant that will enable us to make the final decision with regard to step four.“We always built in weeks in the roadmap to gather this data. Albeit we didn’t know about this new variant, we build in the time gap between steps so we can review the data.” More

Explosive revelations by Dominic Cummings about how the govenrment responded to the coronavirus pandemic feature on the front of many of Thursday’s papers.The former aide’s marathon seven-hour session of evidence to MPs provided plenty of incendiary claims, with some calling it a “rain of fire” and others a “Domshell”.His comments included suggestions government failings led to tens of thousands of people dying unnecessarily, through to Mr Cummings saying he did not think Mr Johnson was suitable to be prime minister.The Times features a sketch from Quentin Letts on its front page in which he refers to the session as “longer and bloodier than Hamlet”.He writes: “Mark Sedwill, the former cabinet secretary, took a pyroclastic boulder smack in the face.”The Department of Health was left smoking like Ground Zero. Carrie Symonds was ‘crackers’ and ‘desperate to get rid of me’.”Even Dilyn the dog came up in dispatches and may well now have to give evidence to the official Covid inquiry. Only in England could a major health dingdong include a cameo for a Jack Russell. Barking.”The Independent, The i and Daily Mirror all used the same quote headline: “Tens of thousands died who didn’t need to die”, with the latter carrying a leader column headlined “damning testimony”.The paper points out the problem of only hearing one side of the story, but that the government “failed in this fundamental duty”.It says: “Cummings’ evidence may have been onesided and selective but it should not be ignored. His criticisms of the government’s handling of Covid demand an explanation.”The coward Johnson is trying to hide from accountability by delaying the public inquiry into Covid until next spring. We need to learn lessons now, not at his convenience.”The Daily Telegraph took a different angle, suggesting an element of revenge from Mr Cummings, with associate editor Camilla Tominey writing “having expended his nine lives in government, this was also about settling scores”.The Sun’s headline – “Do you need a hindsight test, Mr Cummings?” – pokes fun at his well-publicised trip to Barnard Castle during the pandemic, while its leader column claims Mr Johnson will “dodge Dom’s bombs”.It adds people “recognise that our government was one of many whose Covid response was found wanting.”The key difference since being the stellar success of our world-leading vaccine rollout.”Voters are more likely to credit the government with that and our rosier future than rake over the terrible bleakness of 2020 and the chaos in Downing Street.” More

It is not right to say that tens of thousands of people died unnecessarily from Covid-19 as Dominic Cummings claimed, a cabinet minister has said.But leading epidemiologist Neil Ferguson said it was “unarguable” that locking down a week earlier in March last year would have saved 20-30,000 lives.Housing secretary Robert Jenrick said the government “didn’t have all the facts” when decisions were being taken and that the prime minister was acting “with the information and advice” available.”I think it is [wrong],” Mr Jenrick told BBC radio of the claim by former No10 chief of staff Cummings.”You have to remember that we didn’t have all of the facts at the time that the decisions were being taken. “Nobody could doubt for one moment that the prime minister was doing anything other than acting with the best of motives with the information and the advice that was available to him.”However, Prof Ferguson, who was serving on the prime minister’s Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies at the time the first lockdown was implememnted on 23 March 2020, told the Today programme that locking down a week earlier would have saved “20,000 to 30,000 lives”.“I think that’s unarguable,” he said. “The epidemic was doubling every three to four days in weeks 13 to 23 of March, and so, had we moved the interventions back a week, we would have curtailed that and saved many lives.”Prof Ferguson said he “wasn’t privy to what officials were thinking within government”, but added: “I would say from the scientific side there was increasing concern in the week leading up to 13 March about the lack of … a resolved plan of what would happen in the next few days in terms of implementing social distancing.”The UK has suffered one of the worst death rates from coronavirus in the world, with over 150,000 dead.Some experts say two decisions by the prime minister to delay lockdowns during the first and second waves led to exponential growth of the disease and mass casualties.It comes after Mr Cummings claimed that Boris Johnson said he would rather “bodies pile high” than order another lockdown, giving the virus more time to take root and kill tens of thousands.The government has refused to be drawn on most of the specific allegations made by Mr Cummings at a barnstorming evidence session before MPs yesterday. Asked why Boris Johnson did not follow the scientific advice he was given to lock down the country in September, Mr Jenrick said: “Well, the Prime Minister looked at all of the evidence in the round.”Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he added: “He looked at the health evidence, he looked at the impact on the economy. Remember, locking down a country for a prolonged period of time is a hugely difficult decision to take, with a great deal of consequences for our public services, for people’s lives and livelihoods. It’s not an easy decision to take.”It is ultimately the Prime Minister and ministers who make decisions, but it is on the basis of advice.”The Prime Minister analysed and reviewed the advice that was available; we’re very open about the advice, all the Sage minutes are published and in the public domain.”Boris Johnson is expected to speak to broadcasters later to respond to some of Mr Cummings’ allegations. More

Here are the most dramatic claims made by the ousted former No 10 chief adviser, in his marathon evidence session before MPs.* The government “failed” the public – leading to “tens of thousands” of unnecessary deathsDominic Cummings opened by saying Whitehall “fell disastrously short of the standards the public has a right to expect”, admitting his own culpability for some of the mistakes made.In perhaps the killer quote of the day, he then said: “Tens of thousands of people died who didn’t need to die.”* It was suggested Mr Johnson be injected with coronavirus “live on TV” – to illustrate it was harmlessIn February, as the pandemic loomed, Boris Johnson “regarded this as just a scare story, he described it as the new swine flu”, Mr Cummings said.Officials wanted him to “just tell everyone ‘it’s swine flu, don’t worry about it, I’m going to get Chris Whitty to inject me live on TV with coronavirus so everyone realises it’s nothing to be frightened of’.”* Mr Cummings urged the prime minister to order a lockdown on 12 March – 11 days before it was finally imposed – warning of 100,000-500,000 deathsHowever, there was “no plan” for doing so and scientific advisers did not want to “push the panic button” as they instead pursued the policy of “herd immunity”.A day later, he claimed deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara told him: “I think we are absolutely f*****, I think this country is headed for disaster, I think we’re going to kill thousands of people.”Professor Neil Ferguson later estimated that a week-long delay in issuing a “stay at home” order cost up to 25,000 lives.* Mr Johnson was distracted by Donald Trump and a row about his dogDescribing 12 March as “a surreal day”, Mr Cummings said the US president wanted the UK to “join a bombing campaign in the Middle East tonight”, while Carrie Symonds, his fiancee, was upset about a media story about her dog Dilyn.“Part of the building was arguing about whether to bomb Iraq, part of it was arguing about whether to have a lockdown and the prime minister’s girlfriend was going crackers about something completely trivial,” he said.* The Covid response was fatally undermined by Mr Johnson’s flip-floppingThe failures were inevitable when “the prime minister changes his mind 10 times a day and then calls up the media and contradicts his own policy, day after day after day”, he said.Later, he described Mr Johnson as being “like a shopping trolley – smashing from one side of the aisle to the other”.* Mr Johnson wanted to be “the mayor of Jaws”, explaining the failure to impose border restrictionsIn the book and film, the mayor of Amity famously did not want to close the beaches because it would ruin the tourist industry – despite the presence of a man-eating shark.Mr Johnson regretted the first lockdown and was determined to prioritise the economy last autumn, saying – numerous times – he “should have been the mayor of Jaws”.“Fundamentally there was no proper border policy because the prime minister never wanted a proper border policy,” Mr Cummings said.* The Cabinet Secretary concluded Mr Hancock was “lying” about PPE shortages – and wanted him firedThe health secretary blamed Simon Stevens, the NHS chief executive, and the chancellor Rishi Sunak for the lack of equipment, but Mark Sedwill investigated and found the claim to be “completely untrue”.“I have lost confidence in the Secretary of State’s honesty in these meetings,” the Cabinet Secretary was alleged to have said. Mr Cummings said he had kept a note.* Matt Hancock wrongly said patients discharged to care homes would be tested for Covid – angering Mr Johnson“Hancock told us in the Cabinet Room that people were going to be tested before they went back to care homes, what the hell happened?” he was said to have shouted, when the truth came out – albeit “a less polite version”.Mr Cummings added: “All the government rhetoric of ‘we put a shield around care homes’ and blah blah, was complete nonsense.”* A test-and-trace system was delayed – because of Mr Hancock’s “stupid” target to carry out 100,000 tests a dayMr Cummings alleged the strategy was distorted by the health secretary’s attention-grabbing wish, in April last year, to go on TV and say “look at me with my 100k target”.“It was criminal disgraceful behaviour that caused serious harm,” he said.* Mr Johnson embraced the “chaos” of the pandemic – apparently believing it made him more popularMr Cummings planned to quit last year, but suggested to the prime minister that he was more frightened of him than he was of the Covid crisis.“Chaos isn’t that bad, it means people have to look to me to see who is in charge,” the prime minister allegedly replied.* Mr Cummings said he personally heard Mr Johnson say he would rather see “bodies pile high” than impose another lockdown“I heard that in the prime minister’s study,” he told the MPs, adding it was “immediately after he finally made the decision to do the lockdown on 31 October”.In April, in the Commons – after Mr Johnson denied saying it – Keir Starmer noted that ministers are required to resign if they lie to parliament.* He condemned Mr Johnson’s shelving of the long-promised public inquiry until last year – warning documents will go missing“There is absolutely no excuse for delaying it. The longer it’s delayed, the longer people will rewrite memories, the longer documents will go astray, the longer the whole thing will just go cancerous,” Mr Cummings said.* His notorious flouting of lockdown rules by fleeing London for County Durham was “the right thing to do” – but he made an “absolute Horlicks” of explaining itThe reason was fears for his family’s safety after a gang gathered outside his home “saying they’re going to break into the house and kill everybody inside”, which he failed to be open about.Mr Cummings also insisted he told the truth in claiming he drove to Barnard Castle to test his eyes, saying: “If I was going to make up a story, I would have come up with a hell of a lot better one than that one.” More

Tributes have been paid to William Shakespeare, the man who made the headlines after becoming only the second person to get the Pfizer Covid vaccine. The “much-loved” 81-year-old has died of an unrelated illness. Covid, Shakespeare and octogenarians will be making the headlines for quite different reasons today. Dominic Cummings is ready to attack Boris Johnson and his government this morning, and is set to shed some light on whether the PM skipped crucial meetings to work on his Shakespeare book. He is also expected to tell MPs that Johnson claimed “Covid is only killing 80-year-olds”.Inside the bubblePolitical commentator Andrew Grice on what to look out for today: More

Government ministers and their top officials have been nervously wondering for several weeks where exactly the most damaging “Dom bombs” were going to fall.It’s now clear that Dominic Cummings had Matt Hancock in his sights – singling out the health secretary for heavy and repeated bombardment during Wednesday’s testimony to the joint inquiry of MPs examining the government’s response to the pandemic.Boris Johnson’s former senior adviser accused Hancock of “criminal, disgraceful behaviour” by interfering with the fledgling test and trace system and claimed that the minister fell “disastrously below” the standards expected during a public health crisis. More